MUSICAL COMEDY SEASON

Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 24, 28 January 1918, Page 3

MUSICAL COMEDY SEASON

"CANARY COTTAGE. 1

It is no use attempting to explain ragtime. If it were capable of explanation it would not be ragtime, or ragtime would not be popular. "Canary Cottage" is the ragtime of musical comedy, which does not mean that it is ragtime music, but a ragtime plot, ragtime dressing, ragtime dancing, and ragtime fun —hilarious, colourful, quick, in some parts melodious, and in all parts gay— but according to no scheme or plan. The comedy has the appearance of having grown from a song about love in a cottage in a canyon. First it became a revue, then it developed the semblance of a plot and became musical comedy. The title "Canary Cottage" has very little reference to the plot, but the t plot is not important, and the title does' suggest colour, light music, dainty . movement, and love, which are th« principal features of the play. The story introduces Jerry Summerfield, a man with "a way with him," in a cottage with Billy Moss (who is suffering the effects of the morning after a night before of Arctic duration). The presence of young men and women is explained by a party, to which comes Trixie Fair (one of the women who like. Jerry's way), Pauline Hugg (whose mother likes Jerry's way), and Blanche Moss (who prefers Jerry's presence in her husband's absence).

Round this fragmentary plot are arranged numerous catchy songs and pretty dattces, bright ballets, and dresses with delightful colouring. Miss Maude Fane danced and sang with her usual vivacity and neatness. As Pauline Hugg she looked the part of the girl anxious to see life, and her songs were always well received. Her duet with Mr. Fred Maguire (her true Irish lover), "That Syncopated Harp," had the swing and life of an Irish jig. With a quartette Miss Fane sang also "The Sweetest Girl in Maryland," a'quite melodious number. iA full share of the spotlight was reserved for Miss Cecil Bradley (as Trixie), and she deserved it. "I Never Knew," her duet with Mr. William Greene, was the most ambitious musical effort of the evening, and it was.worthily rendered. A delicate and tuneful number'was "The Roses Have Made Me Remember," sung by Miss Bradley as a solo. Mr. William Greene, as Jerry Summerfield, was .an excellent stage lover, and missed none of the humour of the embarrassing situations in which his promiscuous love-making landed him. On the musical side he. met all demands, both in duets and a lively song, "Hello, I've Been Looking For You." An hilarious laughter-maker, with an inexhaustible stock of appropriate mannerisms, was Mr. Alfred Frith, as Billy Moss, seeing snakes" and dodging his wife. Out of a very little material he made much fun. Miss Connie Ediss made her entry with a successful song and specialty item, "Follow the Cook." Her broad, ramping humour and absurdities were not the least appreciated feature. Mr. Field Fisher, as a chauffeur who has had a little accident, had little to do, but that little was marked by much • originality and art, insofar as art n can enter into broad comedy, that tKe audience: wished that it had been more. There were' several specialty dances, which won delighted approval. The best of these was "The Cat and the Canary," by dainty Miss Madge Elliott and Mr. jack Hooker. "Canary Cottage" will be played, again this evening. ■ ■ '